Barnacles and Pineapples Part 1
Another Saucy Wenches writing prompt – I plan on finishing this one, but this half is already running far longer than I’d intended, and I’m not sure I could finish the second half in time for the prompt!
As she dangled, her bound wrists and ankles knotted to the wooden pole carried by the chanting trolls, Tayt finally had to admit that there was a small chance she wasn’t going to be able to complete this particular mission.
Things hadn’t exactly gone according to plan.
The pirates she’d hired to escort her to the little-known troll temple on a mid-ocean island had instead drugged her and Roshii and then tossed them overboard in the middle of the night, keeping her belongings (and most of her weaponry and money) for themselves.
Stupid pirates.
And stupid her for trusting them in the first place, she supposed.
She could hear Bessie’s voice in her head even now. “That’s one,” her teacher would say, with that insipid bovine smile on her face.
And then, when she and Roshii finally washed up on shore, the first thing she did was build a fire. A fire whose smoke led the cannibalistic trolls right to her tiny camp.
Stupid trolls.
And stupid her for not scouting the island first.
“That’s two,” Bessie would smirk, holding up a second sausage-thick finger.
Oh, she’d wanted so badly to wipe that look from her teacher’s face. To prove that she was ready, that her training was over, and she didn’t have to see that tauren’s red-splotched hide ever again.
She was certain the third and final failure would be given sometime around the moment when the trolls hoisted the pole over a fire and her midsection started to sizzle. Only this time, Bessie wouldn’t be here to save her when she reached the count of three.
This was ridiculous. She’d been sent to steal a pineapple, how hard could that be? Sure, it was some kind of holy troll talisman, but it was still just a fruit.
And where in the name of the twisting nether was Roshii? That stupid raptor had run off while she started the fire. She’d assumed he was hunting, but surely he’d have come back looking for her now.
Her eyes narrowed. If these trolls touched one neon stripe on his orange back, she was going to kill them all.
One of the trolls poked her with a stick and gave a sharp laugh.
She grimaced. Okay, she was going to kill them anyway.
Just as soon as she got untied.
She tested the bonds again, for probably the fifteenth time. Nope, still solid. The pirates had stolen most of her gear, but she still had a few knives that she wore sheathed under her clothing even when she slept.
She’d detested Bessie’s insistence that she learn to sleep in the chafing bindings, but she was glad of it now. Not that she’d ever admit that to the tauren’s face.
The trolls had only found one of them – the one on the outer thigh. It was they one they were supposed to find. The sheath was bulky and the knife was large. She still had one shiv braided into her hair, one bound carefully on the inside of her upper arm, and another tucked into a compartment in her boot heel.
And every single one of them was useless while she was trussed up like a festival boar.
The island was relatively small. It took only a handful of minutes before they reached their destination – a quiet cove of impossibly blue water surrounded by white sand. Palm trees rose along the edges like solemn sentinels and barnacle-covered boulders dotted the pristine sand as though a giant had scattered his marbles and forgotten to pick them up.
A space near the water’s edge had been cleared. A short wooden structure stood in the center, and she recognized it immediately as the support for the pole she was tied to.
So that was it, then. They’d arrived, and she didn’t have so much as the beginnings of a plan for how she was going to get out of this one.
Trolls stood around the clearing, cheering as they approached. The cheering turned to chanting as the two trolls carrying her gently lowered her pole onto the structure, then stood back.
The chanting rose to a rhythmic pitch before a single voice pierced the air, silencing them immediately. Tayt turned her head awkwardly to watch as a tall green-skinned troll woman wearing a feathered headdress strode forward.
All of the other trolls immediately collapsed to the floor, prostrate.
The female troll held up an object to the sun. Tayt squinted. Was that…a pineapple? Her eyes widened. That was the pineapple she’d been sent here to steal! It wasn’t a real pineapple – rather, it appeared to be some sort of carving, bristling with glittering gemstones.
She had to get that pineapple!
The female troll began to chant – the same word, repeated over and over again.
All those times Bessie had admonished her to practice learning the languages of other races – she wished now that she’d listened instead of just learning a few words here and there to appease her teacher. What was that word? Sounded like the troll word for ‘hunger’, or ‘hunter’. She couldn’t be sure. For all she knew, it was the word for ‘hat’.
That was getting her nowhere. She turned away, testing the bonds again while she thought. Where was Roshii?
A flicker of movement along the edge of the water caught her eye and she froze. One of the boulders had moved, slipping into the water without making a sound.
She watched carefully, and saw the smallest of ripples travel lazily toward them. Her eye fastened on the approaching disturbance while her mind tried desperately not to think of what it could be.
The troll’s voice grew confident, louder. That wasn’t a good sign at all.
Turning her head, Tayt began to bite and pull at the sleeve of her shirt, trying to expose the shiv holstered on her upper arm. If she could get that in her teeth, maybe she could release her bonds. None of the trolls were watching her, all of them were paying attention to whatever was headed their way. If she was quick, maybe…
The ripple finally reached the edge of the water and paused there. Still working at the sleeve, Tayt’s eyes fastened on that tiny spot, where the ripples had been.
Something about the size of her head parted the water, lifting skyward. A slit opened on either side of it, releasing an audible breath which sent a flurry of waves darting away from it.
What could that possibly be?
She didn’t have to wait long to find out. The creature emerged from the pool, water spilling across its scarred and scaly hide like silk cloth being pulled across a corpse.
It was hideous. It was monstrous. It was the biggest crocolisk she had ever seen in her life.
Worst of all, its massive, soulless black eye was fixed firmly on her.
